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Easter
2-5 April
The word Easter comes from Saxon times, when the goddess of Spring
was worshipped. This goddess was called Eastre. Eastre's
favourite animal was a hare and, of course, Springtime is when all
the baby bunnies are born. Easter is a great opportunity to
celebrate the end of the winter, suddenly flowers are starting to
bloom again, baby birds are tweeting in the trees and baby lambs are
skipping about the fields. This is why we give each other eggs
at Easter, as an egg is a symbol of new life.
My favourite website at the moment is Meddybemps.com and they
have lovely printable Easter colouring sheets, games, short stories,
quizzes and an
interactive Easter Egg Hunt.
There is also
an illustrated short story to read on your computer about Frogwart
the naughty witch.
www.meddybemps.com/funandgames.html

www.meddybemps.com
There are some wonderful craft activities at the American Family Fun magazine website.
Choose from:
An egg box Easter chick for holding sweets:
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts

and a mouse Easter egg:
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts

There are some Easter themed colour pictures to use when making your own
cards or just as decorations in themselves:
http://a.familyfun.go.com/Resources/global/printables/0306_Spring-stickers.pdf

You can print off the template for these beautiful little Easter
baskets, also from Family Fun:
http://a.familyfun.go.com/printables/mini-easter-basket-863104/
There is an almost endless supply of Easter crafts, activities,
colouring pages and Easter printables to be found here:
www.dltk-holidays.com/easter/
Find lots of creative ways to make Easter Eggs at
www.kidscraftweekly.com
CBBC has a fun Easter Quiz to do online (it's not easy):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/quiz
Have lots of fun rescuing Cadbury's Creme Eggs from Sir Eggbert
Shelby's museum in the online game
The
Great Eggscape. There are four levels and some
brilliant graphics.
If you would like to find out about Jesus and the
Easter Story there is a well written (and printable) version
here:
www.childrenschapel.org/biblestories/easter
Earth day
22 April
Earth Day is a time to celebrate our wonderful world and think of
ways to protect it.
If you want to see just how beautiful and amazing our world is,
you'll find videos, activities, games and stories at:
kids.nationalgeographic.com
Find out how you can Reduce, Reuse, Recycle at this seriously
cool site for kids:

www.recyclezone.org.uk
There are Earth Day crafts, games, colouring pages and projects
at:
kaboose.com
You can download a 12 page "Happy Earth Day" booklet
from here:
www.epa.gov/region5/publications
You'll find interesting facts about the environment and fun stuff
such as interactive games and activities to print, cut and play at:

www.planetpals.com
There are lots of free energy saving tips posters to
download (and stick up around the house for your family to see) at:
www.biggreenswitch.co.uk/free-downloads
St George's Day
23 April
We've had Burn's Night and St Patrick's Day, so now it's time to
celebrate England!
England's patron saint is St George (he's the knight in shining
armour who killed the
wicked dragon). You can find out everything you need to know
about him at the
incredible Woodlands
Junior School site.

Copyright Salisbury District Council
Although there should be celebrations all around the country on this
day, there are
actually only a few. One of the very best takes place in
Salisbury, Wiltshire, where a
truly massive inflatable dragon is slayed by St George in the city's
market square.
May Day
3 May
Find out everything there is to know about May Day history and
customs at the delightfully old-fashioned:
Elaine's
May Day Page
There are May Day crafts such as this little maypole for your
toys to dance around at:
www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/
There are lots of ideas for activities and crafts including
a Hawaiian Flower Garland at:
http://home.howstuffworks.com
Father's Day
20 June

Here are some fun things to make (or even just print out)
to let dad know how much
you love him. Don't forget to be extra kind and well-behaved
on the day!

I've created a selection of simple, free Father's Day cards
that you can print onto card. They'll print out in colour and
you can find them here.
kaboose.com
has loads of craft activities and cards to make
for Father's Day. There's something here for everyone, from
really creative cards, to
pebble paperweights, a photo frame and pencil holder.
You can make this lovely card out of brown paper and a ribbon
from the instructions at Enchanted
Learning.
And finally, you can print these stickers by visiting the FamilyFun
website, where there are so many craft activities and fun ideas you
are likely to be overwhelmed by the choice!
Summer Solstice
21 June

The Summer Solstice is the day when the sun is
at it's highest in the sky and it is
also the longest day of the year. We have 13 hours and 1
minute of sunlight on this day!
The word "solstice" comes from Latin and means "sun
stands still".
Every year, on this day, hundreds of people visit Stonehenge in
Wiltshire to see the sunrise
there. In prehistoric times men built a huge circle of stones
through which the sun casts a
mysterious beam. You can see how this works on this BBC
website:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire
You can also download lots of archaeology
pages to learn from, colour in and play with from
the people who investigate the stones at Stonehenge:
www.wessexarch.co.uk/learning/resources
Midsummer's Day
24 June
In Britain people have always celebrated the summer sunshine on
Midsummer's Day, which
is 24 June. People would build bonfires and dance in a circle
around them, to celebrate
the wonderful light and warmth that the sun brings.
This was also believed to be a magical time when all the fairies
and pixies came out to play.
Shakespeare wrote a very famous play about this called "A
Midsummer Night's Dream".
CBeebies have a short animated version of the story here:
cbeebies/stories/dream.shtml
Even the early morning dew on Midsummer's Day was believed to be
magical. Young girls
would wash their faces with it to make themselves beautiful and old
people would wash with
it to make themselves look young.
If you would like to celebrate Midsummer, you could have a picnic
of traditional summer foods,
such as gooseberry fool, strawberries and raspberries. You
could even bake some little round
biscuits or cakes and decorate them with smiley sun faces.
Then you might like to either dress
up as fairies and pixies or hunt in your garden to see if you can
find any hiding there on this
special day. In the evening you could have a bonfire to dance
around, just like our ancestors did.
St Swithin's Day
15 July
People used to say that if it rains on St Swithin's Day
it will rain for 40 days (that's almost
until the end of August). This legend has lasted for a
thousand years, ever since the bones
of St Swithins were moved to Winchester Cathedral in 971.
There was a huge storm then
and it lasted for 40 days. Let's hope it's a lovely day!
Just in case, you might want to paint
a smiley sun picture or colour a paper plate yellow and give it a
smiley face - to encourage the
sun to chase away the clouds.
Roald Dahl Day
13 September

To celebrate Roald Dahl Day properly you must first visit the
official website: www.roalddahlday.info
Here you'll find an A4 party poster, stickers and bookplates to
download. The poster has lovely
suggestions for how to celebrate e.g. wear something yellow (this
was Dahl's favourite colour),
write a revolting rhyme, make up an Oopma Loompa Dance with your
friends or give someone
a treat (Dahl loved to give treats).
You can download party printables from the Treats section of the
website. These include:
birthday bunting, a characters quiz and enormous BFG ears.
Then get recipes for Mrs Twit's
Eyeball Cakes and a Hot Choc Sludge Drink. If you have any
energy left, you can also get printables
for making an enormous concertina crocodile or a roly-poly bird,
amongst others.
What a celebration!
If you still haven't had enough, you can visit the Roald Dahl
site: www.roalddahl.com
where there are book-themed online games and facts
about the great man himself.
If you can wait until November 2009 an animated film of "The
Fantastic Mr Fox" is due
to be released by (can you believe it?) Fox Animated
Studios. George Clooney is going
to supply the voice of Mr Fox, so you shouldn't have trouble
persuading mum to take
you to see it!
International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Friday 19 September.

Just to make sure everyone knows it is a special day, you can download
this poster and
put it up in your front window: www.talklikeapirate.com/partykit
There is a pirate hat and eye patch to cut out here:
www.leehansen.com/printables
and there's a whole page of free pirate clip art to use as
you wish, on the same site:
www.leehansen.com/clipart/
There are lots of lovely pirate crafts including a
spyglass, a parrot and a pirate ship at dltk-kids:
www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/pirates
The Disney website FamilyFun has some great ideas for pirate
games or a pirate party:
http://familyfun.go.com/parties
The Family Fun site is especially useful as it has a section on "How
to talk like a pirate".
Autumn Equinox
21-23 September

Equinox is a Latin word meaning "equal-night".
The Autumn Equinox (which is on 23 September this year) is
the day on which there are exactly 12 hours each of day and of
night. This is the last moment before the nights start to
lengthen into winter, so was traditionally a time to celebrate the
year's harvest (it is sometimes called Harvest Home) and to reflect
on the joy of summer months.
In astrology, this is the date on which the sun enters Libra,
whose image is a set of scales, to represent the balance of night
and day.

For our pagan ancestors, this was a time to rest after all the
hard work of bringing in the harvest, to be grateful for all the
food they had gathered and to consider what they had achieved in the
last few months. Corn dollies would be made out of the last
sheaf of corn to be harvested. The dollies were then kept
inside the house to bring good luck to the families over the
winter. People would gather together in the evening and honour
the Green Man (who was their god of the woods) by pouring cider or
ale at the base of a tree. (It was a way of thanking the
tree for it's goodness by sharing a drink with it.) The
equinox was also known, in England, as The Feast of Avalon because
it coincides with the apple harvest and Avalon means "the land
of apples".
In medieval times, the church turned the pagan festival
into the Christian feast of St Michael and All Angels or Michaelmas
(pronounced 'mickelmas'). Michael was the archangel who
threw Lucifer (the devil) out of heaven. There is a legend
that when the devil fell to earth he landed on a blackberry bush,
which he cursed for its prickliness!
This year Michaelmas
is on 29 September. Some schools and colleges still call the first term
of a new school year the Michaelmas term. Old superstitions say that it is
unlucky to pick blackberries after Michaelmas, but if you eat
goose on this day you will be lucky for the rest of the year.
The Victorians believed that a tree planted on Michaelmas Day would
grow really well. So why not plant an apple tree this
year? It will be well established by next year, when you will
be able to celebrate the equinox in the pagan fashion by gathering
around and sharing a drink with it!
The Big
Draw
1-31 October

This is a nationwide, month-long season of drawing events for all
ages.
Big Draw Day is Saturday 10 October, but there will be
events taking place throughout October.
See our diary section for local Sussex events.
Find out more at: www.campaignfordrawing.org
To get you started, there are free drawing lessons at www.howtodrawit.com
The advice is so simple it's suitable for ages 3 and over!
If you are feeling really inspired, the Art
Attack website has everything a budding artist could wish
for.
World Animal Day
Saturday 4 October

Your first port of call needs to be the World
Animal Day website
where you can access the Kids Zone for animal jokes
and loads of ideas. You can do
something kind things for your animals, such as making a toy mouse
for your cat, decorating
a new bowl for your dog, make a cake for garden birds or even a toy
aquarium for your bedroom.
If you click on this link Who
Came To Our Bird Table? you can download a chart for
recording all the birds who come to your garden in a week.
If you are unable to
identify all the birds, there is a wonderful Children's Guide to
Garden Birds at the Campaign
for Learning website. You can print off this free 24 page
activity booklet here
and keep it by the window for reference. (After you've coloured in all the lovely pictures).
For an easy fun craft activity, you can visit the BBC's
Little Animals Activity Centre
and print off pages to cut out and make tiny finger
puppets of a mole, an owl, a hedgehog,
a mouse or a fox.
National Children's Book
Week
5-11 October

Children's Book Week is a celebration of books and reading
for children of primary school age.
This year's theme for Book Week is Words and Pictures.
There are lots of resources and ideas at the official website:
www.booktrust.org.uk/Campaigns/Childrens-Book-Week
These books were shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny
Prize in 2008.
Why not visit your library and try them all?
Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear by Andy Stanton
Paddington Here and Now by Michael Bond
Stop in the Name of Pants! by Louise Rennison
Cosmic by Frank Cottrell
Aliens Don't Eat Dog Food by Dinah Capparucci
Urgum and the Goo Goo Bah! by Kjartan Poskitt
Or try the Tikes
Stay In page of this website, where you'll find lots of
recommended books
plus links to the publishers' own websites - some are interactive
and great fun!
Diwali - Festival of Lights
17 October

www.diwalifestival.org
Diwali
celebrates the Hindu New Year. In preparation for this, people
spring clean their homes and open windows to let in Lakshmi, the
goddess of wealth. To light the goddess' way, lamps are
lit all over the house. The word "diwali" comes from
the word "deepavali" meaning "cluster of
lights". There is a free printable picture of the
goddess Lakshmi for the kids to colour here:
www.balagokulam.org
A little oil lamp is also put in the window, in
memory of Prince Rama and Princess Sita. According to legend,
Rama and Sita loved each other very much. One day an evil
demon tricked Rama into leaving the beautiful Sita alone in
the forest, so that he could steal her from him. Rama set out
to rescue Sita with the help of the monkeys and other animals and
had a series of amazing adventures on the way. When Rama and
Sita finally returned to their own land the people put little oil
lamps in their windows to welcome them home.
 There
is a simple retelling of the story of Rama and Sita here: www.cist.org.uk
This is a real family party time, as
delicious food is prepared and fireworks are set off to ward off
evil spirits - a bit like our Halloween. On the last day of
Diwali, sisters cook for their brothers, who give them presents in
return.
It is also traditional to make beautiful Rangoli
patterns on the ground using coloured powders.
You can see
some images of these here:

www.diwalifestival.org
You can find a free Rangoli pattern to print off
and colour in at Crayola.com
If you paste it to some card and cut out the disc, you can hang it
up on your door to welcome your friends: www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages
There are instructions for making an Indian elephant,
a decorated slipper and a Diwali lamp pot
at Big
Eyed Owl
There is a really yummy Diwali pudding recipe at this BBC
webpage:
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/
British Summertime Ends
25 October
Did you remember the saying? "Spring forward and Fall
back. "
So tonight you need to put your clock back one
hour. This is the best bit - you get a whole extra hour in
bed!

31 October
Halloween cards and party invitations.
I've put together some images for these which you can use by
clicking below.
It's always difficult to print straight onto
card, so I suggest you print off the page you want,
cut out the
relevant picture and glue it to an A5 card folded in half. You
can then write your own message inside.
Halloween
page 1
Halloween page 2
Halloween page 3
Halloween page 4
Pumpkin Carving
There is a very good tutorial to be found at Halloween
Pumpkins
They have also generously included a number of
free
templates like the one below. 
Copyright
www.halloweenpumpkins.be
Halloween Recipes
As usual the BBC has come up with the best recipes, this
time from their Good Food magazine website. You'll find spooky
spider cakes and that essential pumpkin pie recipe:
www.bbcgoodfood.com There
are also some good recipes, including a very simple Gingerbread
Skeletons & Ghosts one at the baking goods company
Supercook's website: www.oetker.co.uk
 There
is a Frog Pond Cup Cakes recipe on the same site, it's almost too good for kids!
www.oetker.co.uk
Wanda's
Halloween Cookbook doesn't take itself too seriously
and it has some really lovely recipes for
Pumpkin Pie and easy Marshmallow Ghosts.
Copyright Halloweenkitchen.com
Halloween Decorations
Print off the pages from this Familyfun website for
pictures of cats,
pumpkins, ghosts and spiders to stick on walls or windows for
Halloween night.
Familyfun also
h as colourful cartoon type banner to print off and
cut out.
You could alternatively make a spookier banner with pieces of white, orange and black
paper or card.
Print off these templates.
You will then
need to cut out the eyes, nose and mouth of each (plus the outlines
if you can).
Then punch a hole at the top right and left of
your paper and push string through each to hang them in a line.
www.thetoymaker.com/Holidays/Halloween/skull1.pdf
www.thetoymaker.com/Holidays/Halloween/cat2.pdf
www.thetoymaker.com/Holidays/Halloween/pumpkin3.pdf
Halloween Party Games /
Activities
There are lots of lovely party game ideas at partygameideas.com
The American chocolate company Hersheys
has instructions and printables for games such as Pin the Wart on
the Witch and an easy Ghost Pinata to make.
Copyright www.hersheys.com
My family's favourite Halloween Party Game is
"The Feely
Game".

It needs a small amount of preparation, but is
well worth the effort.
You need to prepare a number of items
and place them on a table either hidden inside shoe boxes (with a
hand hole cut in the side) or simply under separate tea
towels.
All the party guests stand outside the door and are
brought into the (darkened) room one-by-one to feel the items on the
table and guess what they could be.
The most effective items
are as follows:
2 hard boiled and shelled eggs (these will feel like eyeballs).
1 rubber glove (preferably the thin transparent kind) filled with
flour and secured at the arm end with a rubber band.
(This feels remarkably like a human hand, if you put enough flour
inside.)
1 old wig (feels horrible in the dark)
plate of cold cooked spaghetti
a piece of pumpkin cut into the shape of an ear
1 raw sausage (kids will obviously need to wash their hands after
this.)
There are lots of other things that you can do. If your
children are very small or squeamish, they'd probably rather just
feel random toys and household items (obviously not sharp
ones). However, the older children like to pretend they are
feeling
various body parts - especially as it's Halloween. The best
way to play this game is by encouraging the most hysterical guest to
play first. Their shrieks when they touch the various items
only adds to the tension felt by those waiting outside the
door!
Another good game for families is
Nelson's Eye.
Only one person needs to be the "victim" here as everyone
else gets to watch. It is probably best to choose the
person
with the strongest stomach! The person who has been nominated
/ who's volunteered waits outside the door while the scene is
set. One person is going to be Nelson and another is the
story's narrator. The rest are simply the
audience.
The person who is going to be Nelson needs to be dressed
appropriately in a heavy jacket.
He needs to put only one arm into the jacket and have the other
sleeve hanging empty. A pirate patch is also a vital
prop.
Your last prop is a soft boiled egg with the top cut off.
The volunteer needs to be blind folded before coming into the
room. Stand the volunteer in front of "Nelson" and
tell them
that you are going to introduce them to Admiral Horatio
Nelson. Ask them to shake Nelson's left hand. Explain
that he cannot shake hands with his right hand because he lost that
arm in battle, then let the volunteer feel the empty sleeve.
Tell the volunteer how brave Nelson was and how he won the Battle of
Trafalgar in October 1805, directing the fighting from his famous
ship "The Victory". Tell how Nelson had not
only lost his arm, but also his right eye in another battle, then
let the volunteer feel the eye patch on Nelson's face. Explain
that he has to wear an eye patch to cover his lost eye because it is
so hideous. Now tell the audience that Nelson is going to show them
what his face looks like without the patch, but the volunteer must
not look.
(At which point all the other guests must scream horribly!)
Now tell the volunteer that although they can't see Nelson's missing
eye, you are going to let them feel it instead. At this point
you guide the volunteer's finger to the soft boiled egg and poke it
into it. You can probably see why it's best to ask an adult to
be the volunteer - we don't want anyone to be traumatised!
Visit the all new Winnie
the Witch website for all sorts of witch related
activities.
There is a free printable Winnie the Witch
colouring in sheet at: www.galaxy.bedfordshire.gov.uk and
a free dot-to-dot printable of Winnie's cat Wilbur at: www2.scholastic.co.uk and
a whole page of Winnie the Witch jokes at: www.oup.com/uk/minisites/
You can also find a lovely witch and cat poem
with a picture to colour in at:

www.scholastic.co.uk
There are instructions for an easy- to- make egg
carton spider at http://crafts.kaboose.com
Finally, the Hershey's website also has a Halloween
Word Search for ages 7+: www.hersheys.com/trickortreats/
Halloween Fancy Dress Ideas
Again the best site seems to be Familyfun,
with more Halloween Fancy Dress
ideas than you could ever imagine. Some are complicated
and require a bit of time, but some are very straightforward.
Kids Craft Weekly has lovely instructions for how to make a
pirate hat, parrot and a treasure chest. So if
your kids are pirate mad after watching
Johnny Depp strut his stuff, this should keep them
entertained.
Halloween trivia
You can find lots of
facts about Halloween here:
www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Halloween/facts.htm
Interestingly, the last fact is that if you want to
meet a witch on Hallowe'en night you must put your clothes on inside
out and walk backwards. In Scotland, the children go out
'guising' on Halloween night, which means they all put their clothes
on back to front - maybe this way they could look like they were
walking backwards, but without bumping into things!
How could you get through Halloween without a sneaky peek at the
Harry Potter official website?
www.jkrowling.com/
Bonfire Night
5 November
The Gunpowder Plot
Bonfire Night is celebrated to remember the day that Guy
Fawkes tried to blow up the King James and his Parliament on
5th November 1605. Guy Fawkes was a Catholic soldier
and, at that time, Catholics were forbidden to pray in their
own churches. They were very angry with the King and so
some plotted to get rid of him, hoping that a new King might
be kinder to them. They rented a cellar underneath the
Houses of Parliament and placed 36 barrels of gunpowder in
it. They were going to blow them up when the King came
to open the Houses of Parliament. Unfortunately for Guy
Fawkes, someone discovered the plan and he was caught in the
cellar, where he was waiting to light the fuse. He was
later executed for treason (which means trying to harm the
King or your country).
King James was very frightened by this plot to kill him, so he
told his people that they should light a bonfire every 5
November, to remember this terrible plot. We still do
this 400 years later and some people even put a dummy called a
"Guy" on top of the bonfire, which is meant to look
like Guy Fawkes.

Copyright Learning & Teaching
Scotland
Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, guy, 'twas his intent
To blow up king and parliament.
Three score barrels were laid below
To prove old England's overthrow.
By God's mercy he was catch'd
With darkened lantern and burning match.
So holler boys, holler boys, "God save the King!"
And what shall we do with him?
BURN HIM!
There is a printable version of this rhyme
to be found at:
www.activityvillage.co.uk/remember_remember
If that isn't enough, you can download a
whole factsheet about the Gunpowder Plot from the
Houses of Parliament's own website:
www.parliament.uk
Now you know everything about Bonfire Night you can try the
interactive quiz
news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews
or you can test your knowledge of the Gunpowder Plot
with a great game:
www.bbc.co.uk/history/british
Games and printables
There are some lovely colourful interactive games
including Virtual Sparkler, an Interactive Poster and a Pets
Game, plus the Fireworks Safety Code at the DTI site:
www.dti.gov.uk/fireworks/games
There are free printable pages of Bonfire Night pictures to
colour here:
www.activityvillage.co.uk
and more Bonfire Night colouring pages here (these are
more cute):
www.underfives.co.uk1
www.underfives.co.uk2
There's a more grown up fireworks colouring page
at:
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/
I've found a free printable Firework Writing
Paper at:
www.primarygames.com/print_zone
You can build your own very colourful
Crayola Fireworks Spectacular at:
www.crayola.com/kids/games
You can even create your own musical
fireworks display at:
www.pbs.org/capitolfourth/fireworks
You can print off and talk about this lovely "Bonfire
Night" poem by Irene Yates. You could also draw and
colour some pictures of the things in the poem. www.fireworksafety.co.uk
Just to be on the safe side, you may wish to download a copy
of the Fireworks Safety Code:
www.berr.gov.uk/fireworks
Recipes
If you're celebrating Bonfire Night at
home, don't forget to stock up with sausages, baking
potatoes, soup and marshmallows to toast on sticks - it
wouldn't be a true Bonfire Party without those!
However, if you want to follow the American example
for a camp fire party on Bonfire Night you could try
this recipe for 'Smores. They
get their name from the fact that everyone always wants some
more.
You'll need:
A packet of Digestive biscuits
One large bar of chocolate
A large pack of old fashioned marshmallows (not the new fluffy
kind)
Some kebab sticks
All you do is melt the marshmallows on a
kebab stick in the fire, then sandwich them between 2
Digestive biscuits. If you squeeze a square of chocolate
in there too, it melts and goes a bit squishy as well.
Can't imagine why everyone always wants more!
If you're lucky you might be able to
persuade mum to help you make Bonfire Toffee and Toffee Apples
from the recipes found here:
www.fireworks.co.uk/party/recipes.html
You can make easy Chocolate Sparklers
by dipping chocolate finger biscuits into warm water for a
second and then into a dish of and hundreds and
thousands. Anyone could make them!
Remembrance Sunday
& Remembrance Day
8 & 11 November

You
have probably seen lots of people selling and wearing red poppies
in the last few weeks. This is because November is the time
when we remember all the soldiers, sailors and airmen who have lost
their lives fighting for our country. November was chosen
because World War I ended at 11am on the 11 November 1918.
Every year since then the British have remembered these brave people
at 11am on the 11 November to make sure they
are never forgotten. Out of respect, everyone stops what they
are doing and stays silent for 2 minutes. So, all across the
country adults at home or in their workplaces and children in their
schools will all be doing exactly the same thing at the same
time.
Because
the 11 November can be on any day of the week (and so lots of people
might be working), there is also a special day of Remembrance on
Sunday. There is a national ceremony in London at the Cenotaph
(which is a big memorial monument). The Queen places the first
wreath on the steps of the Cenotaph and there is a special
service.
Copyright www.britishlegion.org.uk
Soldiers with bugles (a sort of trumpet) play "The Last
Post". This is a tune which marks the end of a
soldier's day and it represents a final farewell. You can
listen to an mp3 of this by clicking on this weblink: www.lastpost.be/
It's
a very sad-sounding tune.
It is also the custom to read the poem by Laurence Binyon called "The
Fallen".
You can find the whole poem at www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
but you might recognise these famous lines:
"They
shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."
Many
of the men who died were very young and that makes it even more
sad.
However, Henry Allingham who lived in Eastbourne
and was briefly the world's oldest man (he died aged 113!) fought in the First
World War. He believed it was very important we remembered the people we
lost so that
no-one would ever want to start another war.
Stir Up Sunday
22
November (Last Sunday before
Advent)
This is the day when families traditionally gather
together to prepare the Christmas pudding, with each member of the
family taking a turn with the stirring. (Christmas puddings
were probably introduced to Britain from Germany by Queen Victoria's
husband, Prince Albert.) The pudding is made a long way in
advance because it takes a few weeks for all the dried fruit to
become nice and moist inside and for all the flavours to mingle.
On their way home from church, children used to chant :
Stir up, we beseech thee,
The pudding in the pot,
And when we get home,
We'll eat the lot! There are lots of rituals to
be observed when making a Christmas pudding:
The pudding should have 13 ingredients to represent Jesus and each
of his disciples.
Everyone in the family should stir the pudding and make a wish while
they stir.
You should always stir from East to West, which was the direction
the Three Kings took on their journey to bring gifts to baby Jesus.
A (very clean) lucky coin can be mixed into the pudding.
Whoever finds it on Christmas Day will have a wealthy and
happy future. In the past, people used to use a sixpence but a
10p piece will do - as long as all your guests are warned to look
out for it!
You can also add a ring, whose finder will be getting married soon,
and a thimble which is meant to predict a lucky life for those who
find it.
(To avoid anyone choking on these, they can be wrapped in
greaseproof paper before being added. Children should have
their slice of pudding cut up small for them before they eat it, so
that any trinkets can be found.)
Some recipes tell you to soak the dried fruit overnight, so be
prepared to start on Saturday.
According to Delia Smith, it's not wise to cook or store Christmas
puddings in tin foil, as it makes them taste funny. So wrap
them in greaseproof paper instead. There is a
straightforward Katie Stewart recipe at Easy Living's site:
www.easylivingmagazine.com/Food/Recipes/KatieStewartChristmasPudding/ Delia's
recipe can be found at:
www.deliaonline.com/recipes/traditional-christmas-pudding The
BBC has three different recipes at:
www.bbc.co.uk/food/news_and_events
Thanksgiving
26 November
Traditional Thanksgiving Poem:

"Thanksgiving"
The year has turned its circle,
The seasons come and go.
The harvest is all gathered in
And chilly north winds blow.
Orchards
have shared their treasures,
The fields, their yellow grain.
So open wide the doorway-
Thanksgiving comes again!
What is Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving is an American national holiday when
families get together to share a big meal and celebrate all the good
things in their lives. It is a time when all the fruits and
vegetables that grew over the summer have been safely gathered
in. Everyone is pleased that they will have plenty to eat over
the long, cold winter months.
In America, it is traditional to eat a meal of roast
turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and pumpkin
pie for pudding. This is because these were the foods that the
first British settlers in America would have eaten. People
like to remember this because when the settlers came to America they
had to start with very little and so found it really hard to keep
themselves safe and fed. One autumn, when the settlers had
hardly anything to eat, the local native American Indians brought
them lots of their own food and shared it with them. This was
such a kind thing to do, people celebrate it every year.
The First Thanksgiving

There
is a really interesting interactive section on the Scholastic
website that tells you all about
the first American Thanksgiving:
www.scholastic.com/scholastic%5Fthanksgiving/
You can voyage on the ship "Mayflower" from Plymouth,
England to Cape Cod, America along with the original settlers and
experience the exciting sights and sounds of the voyage. Then
find out about daily life on the colony, learn some Red Indian games
and hear all about the original Thanksgiving Feast. Hold
your own Thanksgiving Dinner
Why not have a Thanksgiving Dinner of your own? It doesn't
need to be on the Thursday, you could have it three days later
instead of your usual Sunday lunch. All the recipes you will
need can be found at the links given below. Don't forget to
prepare lots of decorations in advance, with pictures you've
coloured in and place cards for the table. Most importantly,
you need to think about what you are most thankful for this
year. To help with this, print off these Thankful Cards
from FamilyFun:
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/season
and place one on the table for each of your guests.
Ask everyone to fill it in and, at the end of the meal, read them
out to each other. You're bound to feel very happy when
you realise just how lucky you are! Mum
can find a recipe for Classic Roast Turkey from BBC Good Food
here:
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/
(and get some practise in for Christmas!) Activity
TV has two recipes that are so easy you could help mum make
them.
The printable recipe sheets are here for:
Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallow Topping (yum!)
www.activitytv.com/printables/
and Easy Pumpkin Pie
www.activitytv.com/printables
You can even watch videos of how to make these recipes here:
www.activitytv.com/search.aspx?term=thanksgiving
Help to decorate
your Thanksgiving table with place cards for all your guests.
You can find a free printable for pumpkin place cards at
Family Fun:
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/season
Thanksgiving
printables and activities. Find out
how to make a turkey out of your own handprints and footprints at
Kaboose:
http://crafts.kaboose.com/hands-and-feet-turkey.html
There is a really cool Thanksgiving Activity Page at
FamilyFun:
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/season/printable/thanksgiving
 There's
also a lovely cartoony Thanksgiving picture to colour in,
again at Family Fun:
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/coloring-pages/
There are more cartoon colouring pages on a Thanksgiving
theme at Lil Fingers:
www.lil-fingers.com/games/coloring/thankgiving
When
you are all relaxing after your big dinner, you can have fun making
up Native American Indian names for all the members of your
family. They should be names relating to nature that suggest
something about how the person looks or what they are
like.
Some ideas are: Star Dancer, Pale Horse, Sitting Bull, Running
Deer. Or, it you want to be silly, how about Running Nose or
Big Chief Sleepy Bear?
"Walk
tall like the trees, live your life as strong as the mountains, be
as soft as the spring breezes, keep the warmth of the sun in your
heart and the Great Spirit will always be with you."
(Wisdom of
the Navajo)
First Sunday of
Advent
29 November
Advent is the period between 30 November and
Christmas Eve.
This is when families prepare for Christmas Day, when they can
celebrate the birth of baby Jesus.
Now is the time to start writing Christmas cards, decorating the
house, singing carols, buying and wrapping presents.
Advent wreath
A wreath is the traditional symbol for
Advent.
The circular shape represents God who has no beginning or end.
A wreath is green, which symbolises the new life that we are looking
forward to in the Springtime. Not many plants are green in the
Winter, so the green wreath makes a house look cheerful.
Some people hang their wreath on the front door to welcome their
guests.
Others lay the wreath flat and place four candles around
it.
Christians light the candles one at a time on each of the four
Sundays before Christmas.
The first candle is for Hope, the second for Peace, the third for
Love and the fourth for Joy.
These are all things we like to think about at Christmas
time.
On Christmas Day a final special candle can be lit and placed in the
centre of the wreath to celebrate Jesus' birthday and that he is the
light of the world.
If you don't have a real holly or fir wreath, you
can make your own wreath out of handprints.
Simply take a paper plate and draw around a saucer placed in the
middle.
Cut out the circle and you'll have a wreath shape.
Then find some green paper and draw around your hand as many times
as you can.
Cut out all the little hand shapes and glue them all around the
paper plate ring (arrange them at different angles so that they
stick out nicely just like a real wreath.)
You can then decorate your wreath in any way you like. You
could cut out little circles of coloured paper to stick onto it, or
add bits of tinsel or glitter.
Last of all you can add a lovely red ribbon tied in a bow, so that
it looks something like this:
If mum looks after your wreath, and brings it out
every year, one day you'll be surprised by how tiny your hands were
when you made it! Make your own
Advent Calendar There is a very simple
Advent Calendar to print out and make at thetoymaker.com.
Just print off these two pages:
www.thetoymaker.com/Holidays/Christmas/advent1.pdf
www.thetoymaker.com/Holidays/Christmas/advent2.pdf
Then all you need to do is cut out the three sides of each door
and glue the two pieces of paper together around the outside
only. (So that when you open the doors the little pictures
will be visible.) There are more easy ideas for
making Advent Calendars on the excellent Kids Craft Weekly
site: kidscraftweekly.com/advent_challenge ActivityVillage.co.uk have
cute little Christmas Gift Tags to print out.

As there are 24 in a similar style, you could use these for a homemade
advent calendar.
Start by printing off the pages of pictures here: www.activityvillage.co.uk/Christmas_memory_game_3.pdf
www.activityvillage.co.uk/Christmas_memory_game_2.pdf Now
cut out each of the circles and keep them in a box. Then get a
big piece of green card (or coloured-in white card) and draw the
basic outline of a Christmas tree onto it.
Something like this:  Cut
out your tree and pin it to the wall. Then every morning the
children can attach one of the circles to the tree as if it were a
bauble. It should look very festive. If you like, you
could also cut and colour a big star shape that could be stuck at
the top of the tree on Christmas Day. If you're
feeling very ambitious and have a day free, you can build your
own Advent village from the instructions and printables at: www.santaspostbag.co.uk/advent-town-advent-calendar
 Copyright
www.santaspostbag.co.uk It's quite
straightforward because all the templates can be printed from the
website straight onto card for cutting and glueing. There is a
house for each day of Advent up to the 24th, which is the village
church. Once you have made all the buildings, a little treat
can be hidden inside, to be found on the appropriate day. It
could be a nice project for the whole of December, as you could
build up the village as the month progresses - you would only need
to be a few houses ahead at a time. There is also a
truly inspired Advent Reward Chart at www.activityvillage.co.uk
 Children can
write down the good deeds they do each day and will have proof of
their goodness to leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve. You
never know, the habit of trying to do something good each day may
even last into the New Year! There is an alternative
chart, for those who need prompting about what to do, here:
www.northpole.com/Academy/GoodDeeds
St Andrew's Day
30 November

Copyright www.scotland.org
St Andrew was one of Jesus' 12 disciples and was the brother of
Simon Peter. It was to the fishermen, Simon and Andrew, that
Jesus famously said: "Follow me and I will make you fishers of
men". It was also Andrew who brought the small boy with
the five loaves and the two fishes to Jesus, at the feeding of the
five thousand.
After Jesus had died, Andrew spread his word all the way to the south
of Russia. For spreading the Christian gospel, he was
crucified by a Roman governor in Greece. He did not consider
himself good enough to be martyred in the same way as Jesus,
however, so insisted that his cross be turned sideways in an
"x" shape.
After his death, a monk named Regulus had a dream in which an angel
told him to take Andrew's bones north over the seas to the end of
the earth. Regulus did this and finally reached land on the
east coast of Scotland. Where St Andrew's bones are buried is
now the site of St Andrew's Cathedral in the famous city of St
Andrews. He became the patron saint of Scotland (as well as
Romania, Greece and Russia) and the symbol of his cross is to be
found on the Scottish flag, called The Saltire. You
can watch a great animated video of the story of St Andrew by
visiting Scotland's own website here: www.scotland.org/standrewsday/story
Scottish schoolchildren have special events on and around St Andrews
Day. They enjoy storytelling and Scottish country dancing, eat
traditional Scottish food and even play the bagpipes!
St Andrew's Day is said to be a very special day for romance and
magic. According to Scottish tradition, a young girl can ask
St Andrew to tell her the name of her true love on the eve of St
Andrew's Day. Just after midnight, she must peel a whole apple
so that the peel stays in one piece. She must then throw the
apple peel over her shoulder. If the peel lands on the floor
in the shape of a letter, then that is the first letter of her true
love's name.
DEAD FAMOUS SCOTS
St Andrew is not the only famous Scot. Lots of famous people,
especially inventors, explorers and writers, were Scottish.
The following is a brief list (you'll find some of the following
facts and much more at www.ltscotland.org.uk): J.
M. Barrie - The playwright who wrote "Peter
Pan".
Find out all about Peter Pan at this Disney website: disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/peterpan There
is more about J.M. Barrie at the National trust for Scotland
website, which is designed for 7-11 year olds: www.ntseducation.org.uk/pupils/famous-barrie.html
John Logie Baird - inventor of television.
Before he became famous Logie Baird had very little
money.
This is what the website www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
says:
"In
an attic, virtually penniless, he constructed the world's first
television contraption. Sitting on a washstand the base of his motor
was a tea-chest, the projection lamp sat in a biscuit tin, scanning
disks were cut from cardboard, and lenses were bicycle accessories,
at four pence each. The whole thing was held together by scrap wood,
darning needles, string, and of course sealing-wax. And it worked."
Logie Baird moved to England and lived in Bexhill, East Sussex
before he died. You will see him mentioned on the sign that
tells you that you are entering Bexhill - look out for it the next
time you go there in the car. Robert
Burns - poet. Robert
Burns is Scotland's favourite poet. If you have ever sung
"Auld Lang Syne" on New Year's Eve then you have recited
the words from one of his poems. Alexander
Graham Bell - inventor of the telephone.
Bell's family seem to have been fascinated by speech. His
father invented a form of lip reading for the deaf and the young
Alexander even tried to teach his dog to speak! Alexander
actually invented the telephone whilst trying to find a way of
sending sounds that would enable deaf people to hear them. His
own wife, Mabel, was deaf - so this was very important to him.
Once he had founded his telephone company he became a millionaire -
so he was handsomely rewarded for trying to help others! Robert
the Bruce - a king of Scotland. Robert battled for many
years to become the king of Scotland and at one point, hiding in a
cave, he almost gave up. However, he was inspired by watching
a spider very patiently weaving it's web. Even though he
wouldn't have heard the phrase "If at first you don't succeed,
try, try again" he certainly understood it. Alexander
Fleming - discoverer of penicillin. Fleming only discovered
penicillin in 1928, before that people used to become very ill when
they got infections. Thanks to Fleming, we can now go to the
doctor for antibiotics and get better in just a few days. David
Livingstone - Victorian missionary and explorer. David
Livingstone was the first European to map Africa from east to west,
and to see Victoria Falls, which he named in honour of Queen
Victoria. This enormous waterfall is on the Zambezi river and
was named by the locals "the smoke that thunders" because
of the tremendous noise the falling water made. Victoria Falls
is a truly spectacular sight and you can view some exciting pictures
at: www.zambiatourism.com You
can also learn more about Livingstone at the child-friendly national
trust for Scotland website: www.ntseducation.org.uk/pupils/livingstone

Copyright
www.mgm.com
Rob
Roy MacGregor
- outlaw.
When most people think of a Scotsman, they probably have a picture
in their minds of Rob Roy. He was a Scottish version of Robin
Hood, an outlaw who was loved by the Highland people for always
managing to make a fool of the landowners and their agents.
Even though he was arrested a number of times, he just kept
escaping. He was made famous around the world when Sir Walter
Scott wrote a book about him. He became even more famous when
Liam Neeson played him in the film "Rob Roy"! James
Watt - inventor of the steam engine. Once Watt had
perfected the steam engine, the Industrial Revolution was
born. It became possible to make trains and even cars, plus
all sorts of other machines that we couldn't live without
today. You can find out about Watt and steam engines at the
Science Museum's site: www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/on-line/energyhall/ Finally,
two other characters have come out of Scotland - they are just not
quite real!

Copyright
www.beanotown.com Dennis
the Menace and all the characters from The Beano are
drawn and brought to life in a town on the east of Scotland called
Dundee. I'm sure you know all about Dennis, so I'll just
direct you to the Beanotown website for lots of mischievous fun (you
can even create your own Dennis the menace comic): www.beanotown.com 
The
Loch Ness Monster. The best introduction to the Loch Ness
Monster for small people comes in the form of Dick King-Smith's
"The Water Horse", which has now been made into a film.
This is the story, set in the second World War, of a lonely little
Scottish boy called Angus. He finds a mysterious egg which
hatches into an even more mysterious creature that just keeps on
growing. Unable to keep it at home any longer, he takes it to
Loch Ness to set it free. However, once it has been released,
Angus still has to protect the gentle creature from those who
consider it a monster.
There are games, pictures and downloads at: www.thewaterhorse-movie.co.uk
The lovely people at Learning & Teaching Scotland have also
created a study guide for the film, packed full of
facts, activities and stories, for
you to download: www.ltscotland.org.uk/Images/WHStudyGuide
Tree
Dressing Weekend
6 December
Copyright /www.commonground.org.uk/
A kind lady in our street (who has a very large tree in
her front garden) invites all her friends and neighbours
to add a decoration (preferably homemade) to her tree at
this time each year. Everyone then has a chat and
a hot drink while they admire the now-very-festive
tree. This is a wonderful tradition that
encourages creativity and community-spirit whilst also
cheering up the local environment. It might inspire you to start
your own local tree dressing event.
www.commonground.org.uk
Christmas
25 December
Places to play
Visit
Santa's Secret Village where you can write to Santa, listen to
stories read by an elf - then print out and colour them in, join in
with the karaoke, visit Mrs Claus' kitchen and look in her Christmas
recipe book, visit the elves' toy store and the reindeer barn or even create a
personalised story.
A truly
magical website: www.northpole.com

Watch
a penguin write your name or message in the snow - it's great
fun!
www.star28.net/snow There
are games, make & colour activities, songs and stories over at
CBBC's website: www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/christmas/
Take
a digital photo of your child's face and this site will turn it into
an animated elf.
Alternatively you can select a random
face instead. You can then send it to a friend, for whom
the elf will do a little dance! www.elfyourself.com
Things to do
For small children who would
like to learn the Nativity story, you'll find a simple version with
illustrations at: www.topmarks.co.uk/christianity/nativity

Print off the Good Deeds
Calendar, so that you can show Santa how well-behaved you've
been this month!
www.northpole.com/Academy/GoodDeeds/December.pdf I've
found three lovely games for family get-togethers over
Christmas and everything you need can be found on this site:
http://wondertime.go.com/create-and-play/article/great-family-games.html Try
these Christmas activities on printable sheets:
http://funschool.kaboose.com/ac_christmas/christmas_maze.pdf
http://funschool.kaboose.com/ac_christmas/christmas_find_the_differences.pdf
http://funschool.kaboose.com/ac_christmas/christmas_word_search.pdf You
can get about 100 Christmas song lyrics at Kididdles.com:
www.kididdles.com/lyrics/christmas.html Christmas
crafts and printables
CBeebies also have a very easy Nativity scene to print out and
make from an old shoe box.
The family of baby Jesus can be made into finger puppets, so
that you can have your own Nativity show at home, too:
www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/make/nativity.shtml There
is some good quality free Christmas clipart for cards,
decorations or tags, available at:
http://parenting.leehansen.com/downloads/clipart/christmas/index.htm
 On
the same site there is a printable Christmas angel border
(either horizontal or vertical) which could be printed onto all
sorts of decorations, stationery or even home-made Christmas
wrapping paper.
http://parenting.leehansen.com/downloads/clipart/christmas/pages/angels-border.htm
 Create
a banner of gingerbread men:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/christmas/gingerbreadstring/
 There
is a cute Santas banner to print out at Canon printers
Creative Park:
http://cp.c-ij.com/en/contents/3159/03505/index.html The
NatureDetectives website has a host of wonderful things including
free printable templates for snowflakes and for snowmen chains:
http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/seasons/winter There
are 24 free printable Christmas gift tags at
allthingschristmas.com:
www.allthingschristmas.com/northpole/npprintables/tags01.html
www.allthingschristmas.com/northpole/npprintables/tags02.html Plus
15 free printable Christmas colouring pages which would make
lovely decorations once they're colored in:
www.allthingschristmas.com/northpole/color/coloring.html If
you prefer Dr Seuss' "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" pop
over to: www.seussville.com/grinch/pdf/
for Grinch Christmas decorations to cut and colour in. Make
gorgeous origami decorations using the templates or by
watching the animated instructions on:
origami-club.com

http://origami-club.com/en/ 
Anyone should be able to make a Christmas tree
gift bag from these instructions at Familyfun.com
Don't
forget you could also print out more of the cute gift tags we
mentioned below in the
Advent Calendar section (details and link below.)
 Make
a cheery reindeer out of your own hand and footprints:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/christmas/handfoot/ There
are lots of different printable snowmen to cut out and colour
at Makingfriends.com.
The parts are interchangeable, so the possibilities are endless!
www.makingfriends.com/winter/printable_snowman_craft.htm Make
your own snowflake decoration by printing this:
http://www.kaboose.com/parties/pdf/xmas_snowflake2.pdf
New Year's Eve
31 December
 I've
just come across a lovely idea for frazzled parents on New Year's
Eve, it's a Pyjama Party and sleepover which instantly solves the
problem of guests not being able to drink and drive. The
details are to be found at: http://home.ivillage.com/holiday/0,,8jmf72x5-2,00.html
The author of this article is not really thinking of
including kids, but if you got together with just a few families you
get on well with and adapted it a bit, it could be great fun! Start
an annual family tradition by printing out the page at this
Kids Fun File link, for each child:
2008: My Year
Ask your children to answer each of the 8 questions
to the best of their ability. (They can write, draw or simply
tell you the answers.) I'm sure there will be some surprises,
you may discover things about your children you didn't know.
To make future New Year's Eves truly special, keep all the little
pages safely in a box and bring them out each year as reminders of
past events and just how much has changed! On
New Year's Eve an
interesting activity for kids would be to give each of them a
smallish candle and ask them to push a pin through it.
Apparently the phrase "you could hear a pin drop"
comes from the tradition of pushing a pin through a candle, which
when burned down, dropped out at midnight. See whose pin drops
out closest to the time (and see if you can hear it) - this might be
one way of getting a quiet moment! There
were some great ideas in an American magazine called "Family
Fun". These included getting the kids to make big
cardboard placards with each of the numbers 1-10 on them to hold up
one after the other at the countdown until midnight.
Just before the countdown, play Hunt the Clock (if the
clock has a nice loud tick it adds a whole new dimension to
the game). You can make your own New Year's Balloons by
filling balloons with homemade confetti (colored paper cut out
with a hole punch) before blowing them up and tying them.
These can then be burst at midnight for a colourful explosion of
confetti. The last idea was a very clever one. Encourage
the kids to write a New Year's resolution on a piece of
paper, then put each of these into the appropriate Christmas
stocking before storing them. This way they will not be seen
again until almost 12 months have gone by, plus they will be
something else to enjoy in the run up to Christmas. There
is a beautifully illustrated page of Victorian Parlour games
to be found at the Museum of Childhood's website. One that
mums and dads might remember is "My uncle doesn't like
peas", although you may have played it under a different name.
www.vam.ac.uk/moc/childrens_lives/parlour_games Play
End of the Year Charades by compiling a list of important
events, songs, movies or books from 2008 and getting your guests to
act them out. Most of the newspapers have already started
printing such lists, so you shouldn't be short of ideas. When
the time comes to all link hands and sing "Auld Lang Syne"
be prepared by printing off the lyrics from this website: http://www.rampantscotland.com/songs/blsongs_syne.htm
There is even an MP3 version of the song sung by
Kenneth McKellar - now there's a blast from the past!
After all the midnight celebrations,
make sure you have someone tall, dark and handsome to "First
Foot" your house (by going out and coming in again!)
According to Scottish Hogmanay tradition, your first visitor of the
year will determine how lucky you will be. The most luck is
brought by a tall, dark handsome man bringing a gift of either a
loaf of bread or a lump of coal. (That way you can be sure of
being warm and well fed throughout the New Year).
Chinese New Year
14 February 2010
 This
is a big celebration in China and this year it starts on 14
February.
It is a time to get together with your family
and wish everyone good luck in the coming months. In China
everyone cleans their houses thoroughly to get rid off any back luck
and to make room for all the good luck that the new year might
bring. Fresh flowers are brought into the home to symbolise
the coming of spring. The Chinese also like to wear red at new
year because it is considered a lucky colour.
The Chinese
calendar is a bit like our zodiac and is made up of a cycle of 12
years. Each year is represented by a different animal
and (like a horoscope) the Chinese believe that when you are born
you will be a bit like the animal of your birth year.
This
year is the Year of the Tiger.
 All
12 of the animals which represent the Chinese years are:

 You
can read the children's story of the order in which the 12
animals in the Chinese Zodiac would appear at www.blss.portsmouth.sch.uk You'll
find colouring pages of all the different Chinese New Year
zodiac animals at: Apples4theteacher.com
If you'd like to know which
animal represents your birthday, you can put your date of birth on
to this page: www.topmarks.co.uk/ChineseNewYear
and find your Chinese horoscope.
Chinese customs for New Year include hanging red and gold paper down
the doors to keep in good luck. These are called Hui
Chun. Red is a lucky colour in China and gold obviously means
money! To learn how to write Happy New
Year in real Chinese characters for a door banner visit Goodcharacters.com
You can even click on an audio clip to hear how to pronounce it
in Chinese!
Or you can print and colour a wonderful Chinese Dragon Banner
at
Scissorcraft.com New Year's Eve is celebrated with a
huge family feast. Families will often eat 8 or
even 9 different dishes because 8 and 9 are lucky numbers in China
(the Chinese take their superstitions very seriously.) Long
noodles are eaten because they symbolise a long life. At the
end of the meal, sticky cakes and sweets are served. This
tradition is inspired by stories of the Kitchen God who is said to
tell the Jade Emperor in heaven whether the family has been good or
bad this year. The family therefore serves the Kitchen God
sweet, sticky foods so that his lips will stick together and he
won't be able to tell tales on them! You'll
find an easy recipe for traditional Chinese moon
cakes at:
www.dltk-kids.com/recipesdb/ After
dinner the family plays cards with all the lights turned on
until midnight.
At midnight fireworks and crackers are set off
to ward off evil spirits. If you are having a Chinese New Year Party, or just want
to finish the evening off with a flourish, you can release
lanterns into the sky. Traditionally, if you
write your wishes on a paper lantern and release it, the lantern
will ascend to the heavens and your wishes will come true.
You
can buy these lanterns here:
www.glow.co.uk/acatalog/FLYING-CHINESE-LANTERNS.html
On New Year's Day children are given
lucky red envelopes called Hong Bow containing money or sweets and everyone says
"Kung Hei Fat Choy!" Make your own
personalized red Chinese Lucky Money Envelope by clicking on www.activityvillage.co.uk/pdfs/envelope
If you'd like to celebrate Chinese New Year, there are more of links
to crafts and activities below:
Make a Chinese dragon out of an egg box from instructions at:
www.kidsdomain.com/craft/dragon
Learn
some fun traditional Chinese games at Apples4theteacher.com
There are many, many more free Chinese New Year printables for
small people at:
www.activityvillage.co.uk
Valentine's Day
February 14
 Valentine's day is on February
14.
People send a card or present to someone they love on this
day.
You must not sign the card, though, it's meant to be a secret!
There are lovely Valentine's cards to print and colour in at:
www.crayola.com/cardcreator/
There are more Valentines cards to make, recipes and crafts at
this Kids Domain page:
www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/val/
There are even more original ideas for Valentine's
Day crafts at:
www.dltk-holidays.com/valentines/crafts-animals.htm
You'll be amazed how many animals you can make with
heart shapes at this site with
printable pages:
www.first-school.ws/theme/animals/crafts/heart-shape.htm
As usual Activity Village has an enormous number of cards,
activities, crafts, recipes and
puzzles for your kids to enjoy
www.activityvillage.co.uk/valentines_day.htm
Shrove Tuesday - Pancake Day!
16 February 2010
Shrove Tuesday in the Christian calendar is the
last day before Lent. (Lent is the 40 days before
Easter). As Lent was a time of fasting, Shrove Tuesday became
the day when all the fats, cream and sugar needed to be used
up. (In France and other countries, Shrove Tuesday is called
Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday). This is why we traditionally eat
pancakes on this day. In the olden days people also had
Pancake Races where they would run along with their pancake in the
pan, flipping and catching it as they ran. 
Copyright www.sideburn.demon.co.uk
There
is a very famous poem by Christina Rossetti which celebrates this
custom:
Mix a pancake,
Stir a pancake,
Pop it in the pan;
Fry the pancake,
Toss the pancake,
Catch it if you can!
In Scarborough they celebrate Shrove
Tuesday by skipping with skipping rope) for a mile along the
seafront. It sounds such good fun it may inspire you to revive
the custom!
You'll find a classic Delia Smith recipe for pancakes
at: www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes
You can make wonderful Mardi Gras masks at:
www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/mardigras
You can even make a Mardi Gras float for your
Barbie Doll!:
www.mardigrasday.com
Mother's Day
14 March.
This is your chance to show your mum how much you
appreciate everything she does for you. You don't need to
spend money to get a present for her, you could do something kind
for her today, pick her some flowers, or make something special for
her to keep. Here are some nice ideas:
This link tells you how to make lovely photo frames:
www.kidsdomain.com/craft/momphotographs.html

You
can also make a photo cube from old CD boxes and fill it with
flowers you have made yourself. See the Blue Peter website for
instructions:
www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bluepeter/thingstodo
You can combine a photo of yourself with a home-made card
with these instructions:
www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/mothers-day-cards#slide_5
This link has instructions for making Mother's Day
Cards with your own fingerprints:
www.kidsdomain.com/craft/momcards.html
There are lots of free Mothers' Day cards to print out and colour
in at Activity Village:
www.activityvillage.co.uk/mothers_day_colouring.htm
You
can find out how to make Painted Flower Pot gift at:
www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/thankyougifts/flowerpot/ You could write all the things you love about your mum in
a letter. You could even draw a picture of her
as well. Or you could just write a little note wishing her a
happy Mothers' Day, it's up to you.
If
you can't think what to write, how about a poem like this?
Sometimes you get
discouraged
Because I am so small
And always leave dirty marks
On furniture and walls.
But every day I'm
growing
I'll be grown up some day
And all those little dirty marks
Will all have gone away.
As I grow, I'll
change a lot,
The years will fly right by.
You'll wonder how I grew so quick
When and where and why?
I may be still very
small
But this I'd like to say
I love you very, very BIG
Happy Mother's Day!
You'll
find this and other verses like it at:
www.verses4cards.co.uk/mothers-day-poems-from-kids.html
You
can print off some coupons for your mum, with promises that
you'll do things for her at:
www.kidsturncentral.com/holidays/mothers/nmcoupons.htm
Make sure you only give her the ones that you are
able and prepared to do!
As usual Disney manages to do all these things and
better than everyone else. They even have a best Grandma
certificate - in case she's feeling left out! Visit
their Family Fun pages to find colouring cards, crafts and coupons:
http://family.go.com/holidays/pkg-disney-mothers-day-printables/ 
There
are a few more crafts for slightly older kids at the Disney site,
including this very professional looking gift box.
(It's not quite as hard as it looks - you print off the template
onto some card before cutting and folding).
http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/mothers-day-surprise-box-667686/
You may need to ask dad or older brothers or sisters
for some help ... and don't forget to clear up all your mess
afterwards, to keep mum happy!
St Patrick's Day
17 March
St
Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. St Patrick was captured by pirates when he
was a boy and spent six years as a slave before he was able to
escape. He trained as a missionary and went to Ireland to
convert the Irish to Christianity. Ireland is famous for not
having any snakes on the island and the Irish believe that it was St
Patrick who drove them all away.
Irish
fairy stories are full of leprechauns who are mischievous little
green men who make shoes for the fairies, but who also love gold and bury pots of it at the end of
rainbows. You can try to trick a leprechaun into telling you
where he has buried his gold. But if he offers to lead you
there, you must never let him out of your sight or he will vanish
into thin air! If you could ever find the end of the right rainbow you
could dig a hole there and find a pot of gold - so the story goes. One
of our favourite books was Paddy's Pot of Gold by Dick King Smith.
I think it's out of print, but it's well worth getting out of the
library if you can find it. 
If
you can't find this book, then you can always read or print out a story
about leprechauns at Highlightkids.com's website: www.highlightskids.com/Stories/
Apparently, you can use a shamrock (or four leaf clover) as bait for
a leprechaun trap because leprechauns love them. It's very
good luck to find a four leaf clover (not just on St Patrick's
Day!) So, see if you can find one when you are in the park,
garden or school field. They are very rare, so if you do find
one, keep it safe and it will bring you good luck.
Four leaf clovers look like this:
A four leaf clover.
There are some really sweet St Patrick's Day bookmark printables at:
www.activityvillage.co.uk/St Pat Bookmarks.pdf 
You
can print off a Happy St Patrick's Day poster here:
Happy St
Patrick's Day! plus some shamrock
coasters for your bright green drinks here (print and cut out):
Shamrock
coasters
You can print out all you need (apart from the inside of
a toilet roll) to Make your own Leprechaun at:
www.dltk-holidays.com The BBC Northern
Ireland has a fun Snake Game that you can play at:
www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/spring/ If
you'd like to Grow Your Own Leprechaun or Build a
Leprechaun Trap visit:
http://familycrafts.about.com
Perhaps if you can trap a leprechaun he will tell you where his gold
is buried!

You can make the cutest wee leprechaun and a place to catch
him with instructions from Disney's family crafts pages:
http://familyfun.go.com/st-patricks-day/
There are all sorts of games, recipes, colouring pages
and craft activities for St Patrick's Day on the same
site.

You'll find more crafts, colouring, games
and recipes at the excellent dltk site:
www.dltk-holidays.com/patrick 
If
you'd like to find out how all the colours of the rainbow can
be made,
take a look at the Colour Wheel at: www.kidzone.ws/science/colorwheel.htm
It explains very simply how colours can all be mixed from
the three primary colours. You can print out the sheet in
colour or black and white - then colour it in yourself!
Spring
Equinox
(First day of Spring)
20 March
 On
this special day the sun will rise precisely from the East and set
twelve hours later due West, for this is one of only two days in the
year when the day and night are exactly equal (equi - equal; nox -
night). In Britain, this means that Springtime is beginning at
last.
In pagan times the people used to celebrate by dressing up a young
man and woman as the Green Man and Mother Nature. Nowadays, we
mostly just do lots of spring cleaning and start to venture out into
the garden again! The arrival of Spring
is one of the most obvious things to celebrate as it brings with it
the promise of new life. Look around in your garden and in the
countryside and you will see all sorts of flowers starting to
blossom and bloom. There will be baby lambs out on the fields
and if you look very carefully you may spot some birds gathering
twigs to build their nests. The very kind people at
The Woodland Trust have put together 100 activities for Spring,
which you can find and download here: www.naturedetectives.org.uk/download/spring
These include a Spring Play Booklet, a Woodland Log
Book and many nature spotter sheets. You don't have
to go far, though, to celebrate Spring. Why not clear out all
your old toys and make room for new things, or maybe go into the
garden with mum and dad to help tidy up in preparation for some new
flowers and plants. Maybe this year you could have a patch of
your own where you could grow some fruit and vegetables? There
are many more ideas to help you with this on our Mums
Green pages.
British
Summer Time begins
28 March
 Remember
it's: Spring forward and Fall back. So put your clocks forward
before you go to bed (early because you are losing an hour
somewhere!)
April Fool's Day
1 April
 Trick your mum or dad on the morning of April Fool's Day, by
printing off this page, folding it in half to make a card and then
gluing it together. Whoever you give it to won't be able to
open it - so they're the fool! http://familyfun.go.com/Resources
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CHILDREN'S PARTIES
AMAZON OUTDOOR EVENTS. Quad Bike Parties.
Supervised and insured quad bike parties for ages 6 to
adult. From £29 pp.
Hellingly, East Sussex. Call (01323) 645564. www.amazonatv.co.uk BLACKBERRY
FARM.
A22, Whitesmith, near Lewes.
Working farm with animals to feed and stroke, plus pony, donkey
and tractor rides.
(01825) 872912
www.blackberry-farm.co.uk CINEMA
PARTIES
Hailsham Pavilion, George Street, Hailsham.
Parties of 10 or more people can get special rates at the latest
film
(plus a Birthday Announcement before the film). Or you can
hire the entire cinema and
show your own favourite film! Catering facilities
available. Tel: (01323) 841414 or visit:
www.hailshampavilion.co.uk
CLAIRE'S FARMYARD FRIENDS.
Small mobile farmyard - comes to you!
Children can learn about and handle rabbits, guinea pigs, chicks
(and lambs between March
and May). Parties are £60 per hour, needs a min.
of 10 days notice.
Call Claire on (01323) 639220 or visit: www.farmyardfriends.co.uk CLUSTERS
- Jewellery making.
Children's jewellery making parties, priced to suit your needs.
Contact Vicky on (01323) 472136 or 07793 388345. CN
MAGIC.
Disco, games and a magic show for ages 4+.
Magician who regularly performs in school assemblies in various
Eastbourne schools.
Call (01323) 764264 or visit www.cnmagic.co.uk COTTON
CANDIES - Children's Party Food.
Tailor made party food and party bags at competitive prices
(from £1.95 per head.)
Contact Marie on (01323) 728640 or 07787 079831.
CRAZY COOKING.
Cookery parties for children.
Contact Jackie on (01323) 720944.
DRUSILLA'S
ULTIMATE PARTY.
Drusillas Zoo Park, Alfriston.
All day Park access, choice of hot or cold menus, unlimited ice
cream and opportunity
to feed the penguins.
Call (01323) 874100 for more info.
Or visit www.drusillas.co.uk EASTBOURNE
MINIATURE RAILWAY ADVENTURE PARK.
Lottbridge Drove, Eastbourne.
Birthday parties are hosted for EMSR members, but membership is
only
£40 per family (of 4) and this allows unlimited entry to the park
plus discounted train tickets.
Parties are then £6 per head to include 3 train rides, cold buffet,
balloons and invitations.
Contact Rachel on (01323) 520229 or visit www.emsr.co.uk GLITZY'S
MAKEOVER PARTIES FOR GIRLS.
Makeovers (to include nails, temporary tattoos and lots of
glitter!)
Double dance mats, double karaoke, disco and laser lights.
Party Bag service for boys and girls.
£1.50 or £2.50 size party bags with a combination of sweets,
toys / hair accessories etc.
Free delivery in Eastbourne area.
Contact Helen on (01323) 503633. LLOYDS LANES
BOWLING AND LASERQUEST.
Broadwater Way, Hampden Park, Eastbourne.
Call (01323) 509999 for more details or visit www.lloydslanes.co.uk/eastbourne LIMO
FEVA - LIMOUSINES.
Limos for birthdays, proms, hen nights and weddings.
Tel: (01323) 766305 / (01323) 488520 or visit: www.limofeva.co.uk MASTERPIECE
POTTERY PAINTING STUDIO.
The Old Loom Mill, Ersham Road (B2104), Hailsham.
Pottery painting parties for groups of 6 or more.
Under 6's party has 1 hour guided painting session and half an hour
for food.
Over 6's party has 90 minute guided painting session and half an
hour for food.
From £9.50 per head (excl. food but incl. small party bag) plus
£3.50 per person for party food.
Can bring own food (£1 pp cover charge.)
Call (01323) 449245 / 07811 076307 for more details or visit www.masterpiecestudio.co.uk OBSERVATORY
SCIENCE CENTRE.
Herstmonceux, Hailsham.
Call (01323) 832731 for more details or visit www.the-observatory.org
RAY SPARKS.
Punch and Judy, magic, balloon modelling.
Eastbourne's very own Punch & Judy man, as seen on the
seafront every summer. Ray has
a lengthy list of prestigious clients and has even appeared before
Princess Diana!
Call Jacqui for details on (01323) 509622 or visit: www.sparksmagic.com ROCKY'S,
Fort Fun, Royal Parade, Eastbourne.
90 minutes of play and 45 minutes for tea. Visit from
Rocky Bear. Free invites, party hats,
popcorn and balloon. Tel: (01323) 642833 or visit:
www.fortfun.co.uk/birthdaynew.htm POSH NAILS.
139A Green Street, Eastbourne.
Children's parties with mini manicures, nail art and a chocolate
fountain!
Only £8 per person.
Call (01323) 722
888 for more details.
SEVEN SISTERS CYCLE CO.
Choose from:
PIRATE RAFTING - make your own raft complete with pirate flag
and sail it
across the meanders.
BIKING BIRTHDAY - 2 hours with your own bike instructor
teaching you all
the tricks and trails through the forest.
JIGGS' DILEMMA - Jiggs, the friendly smuggler, is on the
run. Find all his barrels and
hide them in a forest shelter (that you've built yourself) before
the Squire finds him!
Then hunt for your hidden treasure.
Parties £14 per person. Party + BBQ or picnic £24 per
person.
Seven Sisters Country Park, Exceat, near Seaford. (01323)
870310.
www.cuckmere-cycle.co.uk SPRING BARN FARM.
Kingston Road, near Lewes.
Toddler's mini maze, indoor and outdoor play areas, animals and
kids' assault course.
Call (01273) 488450
or visit www.springbarnfarmpark.co.uk
for more details. SPLODGE CRAFTY PARTIES 4 KIDS.
Creative fun for children aged 3-11. Make masks, hats,
puppets or decorate T-shirts, mugs etc.
One hour's entertainment or more to suit. Call (01323) 728230.
WILDERNESS
WOOD.
A272, Hadlow Down, nr Uckfield.
Lovely outdoor activities.
Phone (01825) 830509 or visit www.wildernesswood.co.uk WOODLAND
DISCOVERY PARTIES.
Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum.
Bake campfire bread, go on a bug hunt, learn about animal tracks and
signs.
For ages 8 and over.
(01825) 840870. www.thewoodsman.co.uk YOUNG
FARMER BIRTHDAY PARTIES.
Spring Barn Farm Park,
Includes admission to the farm park for all party children plus
free admission for one adult per
child booked. Reserved seating for 2 1/2 hours 11am -
1.30pm or 2pm - 4.30 pm, plus
birthday lunch or tea, served in fun farm boxes. £12 per
child (min. 8 children). Themed
birthday cake can also be made to order for only £18.
Phone (01273) 488450
or visit www.springbarnfarmpark.co.uk ZEST
Specialist in reasonably priced party food. Party
bag service also available.
Contact Helen on (01323) 743702 or visit www.zest-catering.co.uk
(I can personally recommend this one!)
SPORTS CENTRES.
The Eastbourne sports centres have facilities for children's
sports and bouncy castle parties.
These generally last about one and a half to two hours and cost
approx £50.
You can access more info from the following websites:
Cavendish: eastbourne.gov.uk/leisure/sport/council/cavendish/parties
Hampden Park: eastbourne.gov.uk/leisure/sport/council/hampden-park/parties
Shinewater: eastbourne.gov.uk/leisure/sport/council/shinewater/youth/parties
Freedom
Leisure, Hailsham Leisure Centre.
Vicarage Lane, Hailsham.
Bowling, softplay or swimming parties.
Call (01323) 846755 for more details or visit www.freedom-leisure.co.uk Downs
Leisure Centre, Seaford.
Activities include: swimming, soft play, sports,
trampolining and bouncy castle.
More info at: waveleisure.co.uk/kids_juniors.asp
HALLS
FOR HIRE
The Bridgemere Centre, 100 Bridgemere Road, Eastbourne.
Email: office@bridgemerecc.co.uk Old
Town Community Centre, 1a Central Avenue, Old Town, Eastbourne.
Tel: (01323) 721922
Polegate Community Centre, 54 Windsor Way, Polegate.
Tel: (01323) 482434. St John's Church, St
John's Road, Meads.
Tel: (01323) 738671. St Mary's Church, 69
Decoy Drive, Eastbourne.
Tel: (01323) 501704. Upperton United
Reformed Church, Upperton Road.
Tel: (01323) 729036. (Although these are
available for hire - please check with the individual venues
as to their suitability for children's parties.)
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